Appeal by plaintiff from an order of the Small Claims Part of the City Court, City of Rye, Westchester County (P. Lane, J.), dated October 22, 2002, which granted defendants' motion to dismiss to the extent of dismissing plaintiff's action as against defendant Dolan, and directed defendant Cablevision to deposit plaintiff's videotapes with the court and, upon such deposit, plaintiff's action would be deemed dismissed.

Order unanimously reversed without costs, defendants' motion to dismiss the action denied and matter remanded to the lower court for further proceedings.

In this small claims action sounding in conversion, plaintiff sought to recover the sum of $3,000 for the defendants' failure to return certain videotapes plaintiff sent to defendants. Without reaching the merits of plaintiff's claim, we note that plaintiff's action seeks damages for the items allegedly converted, rather than their recovery. In any event, the Small Claims Part of the City Court deals exclusively with "cause[s] of action for money only not in excess of three thousand dollars" (UCCA 1801) and is without jurisdiction to entertain actions seeking the recovery of property (compare UCCA 1801, with UCCA 202). Thus, the lower court erred in directing defendant Cablevision to deposit the subject videotapes into court thereby disposing of plaintiff's action.

Furthermore, the lower court improperly dismissed the action as to defendant Dolan based on lack of jurisdiction pursuant to UCCA 1801 since the affirmation of defendants' attorney in support of the motion to dismiss was not based on personal knowledge but merely stated that he was informed that defendant Dolan did not transact [*3]business in Westchester County and that he resided and transacted business in Nassau County.
Decision Date: October 01, 2003